Arcana Evolved - Thoughts?

[Durandal]

I was a fan of Arcana Unearthed when it came out, as it was a nice change from the standard d20 release, and I think it helped some other companies find a new path. But I'm a little leery of Arcana Evolved, the 'director's cut' of Arcana Unearthed. I've heard a lot of things about it, and I figured that if I wanted to get a fairly unbiased opinion, I ought to ask about it here.

So, what do ENWorlders think of AE? Are the changes good or bad? What's with the changes to the metaplot I've been hearing about? Thanks for any information or opinions you might care to share.

 

[Crothian]

I'm not familar with the old meta plot verse the new one. But mechanically I really like the improvements of the book. It is full color and looks great, the player option are many and look fun. So far I'm very pleased with it.

 

[Henry]

I wrote up a thread in the d20 Systems forum that tells about the most major changes. But in a nutshell:

Evolved Levels - the returned Dragons can use mysterious powers to "evolve" all races including humans to 3 extra racial levels.

New race - the Dracha - think weaker half-dragons. At 4-6th racial levels they breathe fire.

Mojh - added INT and caster level boosts to race levels, took away fire breath.

All classes get abilities out to 25th level; hit dice and BAB keeps improving, unlike Epic levels.

New class - Ritual Warriors. They have combat rituals - Free action abilities, max 1/round, gives them bonuses.

Warmains get some limited combat rituals at 13th level and up.

10th level spells now - everything from MASS DEVASTATION to permanently raising a castle overnight.

Minor tweaks to feats and skills here & there; all errata is now included.

I'm sure I missed something, but these are the highlights.

Oh, yeah, and metaplot advancement - the Dragons came back, said to the giants, "Thanks for kicking out those nasty Dramojh; now git off'n of our lawn, ya mangy varmints. Go back to the east where ya belong!"

The Giants have, needless to say, not yet tendered a response.

 

[RBB]

Where is this August thread?

Will someone please supply a link to Henry's thread (the one he mentions above)? I couldn't find it.

Thanks!

 

[Henry]

I pretty much summed it up above - but here are most of the Arcana Evolved threads from the past two weeks:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=123762
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=123245
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=123503
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=123360

The last thread is the one where I did my summation, I think.

Any particular one of these points you are interested in?